By Carl DiOrio

HOLLYWOOD (Variety) - ``Don't Say a Word,'' whose title neatly summed up the thriller's still-dormant marketing campaign just two weeks ago, used a late-surging promo blitz to top the weekend box office with an estimated $18 million.

The boffo bow for the Twentieth Century Fox release marked a career-best for star Michael Douglas, four days after his 57th birthday and decades into a career of film high points.

The film's box office strength -- followed by a $15.7 million opening for Paramount comedy ``Zoolander'' and a $9.5 million debut for the Warner Bros. drama ``Hearts in Atlantis'' -- helped invigorate the theatrical marketplace. Grosses had been sluggish for the past two weekends, as the Sept. 11 attacks prompted picture postponements and hampered marketing campaigns.

Industrywide, this weekend's $77 million in estimated total box office receipts represented a 17% improvement over a year ago, according to data from box office tracker ACNielsen EDI. ``Remember the Titans'' topped the field in the same session last year with a $20.9 million bow.

Receipts were up 29% over a week ago, when Paramount sandlot drama ``Hardball'' led a weak field with $8.1 million. With the latest weekend, 2001 is 9% ahead of the same period last year at $5.96 billion in total grosses.

``This weekend clearly shows people are ready to go to the movies again,'' EDI VP Dan Marks said.

The R-rated ``Don't Say a Word'' gave Douglas his biggest bow since ``A Perfect Murder'' opened at $16.6 milion in June 1998. The performance also eases the recent memory of a dismal $2.5 million debut in April for ``One Night at McCool's.''

``Michael Douglas is a movie star, so we saw that as we got into the hinterlands the movie still played well,'' Fox distribution president Bruce Snyder said.

``We really needed to catch up (with 'Word' marketing), because we seemed to be getting going from nowhere,'' Snyder said. ``But concentrating on the last 10 days, we were able to get there.''

``Word'' skewed 55% female, with audiences roughly split either side of 25.

New Regency Prods. produced ``Word'' for an estimated $50 million, with Fox getting only a distribution fee. The performance was also a personal-best for helmer Gary Fleder (``Kiss the Girls'').

The three openers had been neck-and-neck among the session's likely moviegoers in tracking data supplied to major studios Thursday. But ``Word'' was showing sudden, late-breaking strength in key demos, likely on the strength of a flurry of TV commercials that ran last week.

``Zoolander,'' which marked topliner-director Ben Stiller's first time behind the camera since 1996's ``The Cable Guy,'' was the only one of the three openers to build early picture awareness among prospective moviegoers. The PG-13 fashion industry spoof -- spun from a comedy skit on ``The VH1 Fashion Awards'' -- was produced for an estimated $28 million and got heavy promotion over Paramount affiliates VH1 and MTV.

``We had the trailer out there way in advance as well,'' Paramount distribution president Wayne Lewellen noted.

The picture -- which also got pre-release promo help from a beer tie-in, a Details magazine tie-in and countless Stiller press interviews --split evenly male and female, with about half of its patrons under age 25.

The solid debut for ``Hearts in Atlantis,'' based on loosely connected stories in a Stephen King collection of the same name, followed WB's decision to boost the theater count from a planned 1,200 to more than 1,700 after highly successful sneaks. WB, which had postponed the ``Hearts'' bow one week due to the terrorist attacks, keyed on radio spots to reach older moviegoers comprising pic's target auds.

The bow was a career-best for helmer Scott Hicks (``Shine,'' ``Snow Falling on Cedars''). It's believed ``Hearts'' cost Warners' Castle Rock unit in the low $30 millions to produce.

``We're happy and hope we're in for a long run,'' Castle Rock president Martin Shafer said.

WB distribution president Dan Fellman said the openers' healthy grosses were heartening to industry execs.

``It's interesting how the public has responded,'' Fellman said. ``They wanted to go to the movies. They wanted to get out of the house.''

Miramax used to good effect some 1,250 sneaks for its PG-13 romantic comedy ``Serendipity,'' set to bow wide on Friday. In addition to drawing 86% capacity for sneaks, ``Serendipity'' grosses effectively bolstered receipts for the studio's hit suspense drama ``The Others.''

It's standard industry practice to tie sneak showtimes to a picture already in the marketplace, with sneak grosses going to the current-running pic. So -- on paper -- ``The Others'' enjoyed a 1% uptick in receipts at $5.1 million, despite shedding 77 engagements this session. ``Serendipity'' audiences skewed 60% female and 60% 25 and older.

Also bowing this Friday are Fox's Leelee Sobieski starrer ``Joy Ride,'' the Miramax chopsocky actioner ``Iron Monkey'' and the Disney family picture ``Max Keeble's Big Move.''

Reuters/Variety REUTERS

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Following are the final data for the top 10 movies at the North American box office during the September 28-30 weekend, according to studio figures released Monday by Exhibitor Relations Co. Inc.

Film Three-day Cumulative

Title Gross Gross

1. Don't Say A Word .......... $17,090,474

BOX OFFICE SO FAR: $17,090,474

2. Zoolander .......... $15,525,043

BOX OFFICE SO FAR: $15,525,043

3. Hearts in Atlantis .......... $9,021,494

BOX OFFICE SO FAR: $9,021,494

4. Hardball .......... $5,156,688

BOX OFFICE SO FAR: $26,263,390

5. The Others .......... $4,785,217

BOX OFFICE SO FAR: $86,694,507

6. Rush Hour 2 .......... $2,484,904

BOX OFFICE SO FAR: $219,192,504

7. The Glass House .......... $2,106,341

BOX OFFICE SO FAR: $15,035,267

8. The Musketeer .......... $1,737,540

BOX OFFICE SO FAR: $25,534,375

9. Rat Race .......... $1,702,628

BOX OFFICE SO FAR: $54,086,903

10. Two Can Play That Game .......... $1,628,848

BOX OFFICE SO FAR: $20,647,372

Reuters/Variety REUTERS

John L.: The box office grosses are starting to come back up to reasonable levels again as movies are being released that are getting the attention of an entertainment starved public. It is amazing that "Don't Say a Word" is Michael Douglas' highest debut opening ever considering how long he has been around. Zoolander opened fairly well, but the age of the really dumb protagonist who overcomes the bad guys is starting to get passe. Hearts of Atlantis is another one of those Stephen King stories that doesn't look like a Stephen King story. His less horrific movies tend to do better or get better critical response than his over the top mayhem creations. 

Due to extreme internet problems, only minimum reviews will be given for the rest of the year with the full reviews coming back in January 2002.

Zoolander was Ben Stiller's little vanity project first done on a VH1 Fashion awards show.  It has its moments, but was not very consistent on the humor front.  Stiller's real life wife, Christine Taylor still looks too much like Marcia Brady and it is odd to see.  If you are a Stiller fan, you should like this, others need to wait until cable.  Final review:  2 1/2 stars out of 5; 5 1/2 out of 10; C+; thumbs down.

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